Richie Porte is Sky Procycling’s lead man at USA Pro Challenge

SNOWMASS VILLAGE — With Tour de France winner Chris Froome saying he’s here to help a teammate win the USA Pro Challenge this week, Australian Richie Porte is the team’s GC rider in Colorado. He finished 19th in Le Tour and will have teammates Peter Kennaugh and Kanstantsin Siutsou who helped Froome win in France last month.

“It’s been absolutely phenomenal performance from the team,” Porte told the big crowd here at Saturday night’s team introductions. “I’m looking forward to trying it again here.”

He and Froome have a similar relationship to what Froome had with Bradley Wiggins when that Brit won last year’s Tour.

“Obviously we train together every single day and we have for the last two years,” Porte said. “And we race a lot together. It’s always good to have teammates around you who understand and Chris isn’t a bad guy to work for. He’s pretty easy going. He’s getting the job done so it’s a no-brainer to go work for him.”

The highlight of Porte’s breakout year was winning this year’s Paris-Nice race.

“It’s a nice race to win,” he said. “It hasn’t been a nice one for me but now I look forward to going back there next and try to defend the title.”